Everest expert Kenton Cool has turned his attention elsewhere: to summit - and ski down - Manaslu.

Manasulu is the world's eight highest mountain, weighing in at 8,156. It is Kenton's third 8,000m peak and his partner Andy's first. This now makes Kenton the only Brit to have skied two 8,000m peaks.

Kenton picks up the tale from Nepal:

"This is the round up I love to write. The expedition has been an amazing success, not only did myself and Andy summit the world’s highest mountain, but we also skied down from the summit!

The summit push started with a weather forecast that indicted that summit winds would be just manageable. The temps were low and Ralph from Meteo-test in Bern thought that we would experience wind chill down to -40, it sounded like it would be right on the edge. We climbed steadily up the hill using the camps that we had already stocked. A heavy snowfall while in Camp 1 meant the climb to Camp 2 was harder and longer than we hoped. Andy still had to carry his skis to Camp 2 and the extra weight proved almost too much for him and he looked worked when he finally arrived. The move to Camp 3 proved straight forward and quick, we used the time at camp to rest and hydrate, knowing that the next 48hours were going to be crunch time for the whole expedition.

Camp 4, the high camp at 7400m, proved to be the crux of the climb. Sitting in our tents we struggled to hold down the fabric as 80kph winds tried to rip us right off the mountain side. There was no sleep at all to be had, partly due to the wind and partly as we had no sleeping bags. Huge rucksacks and the weight of the skis meant that both Andy and I left the sleeping bags at Camp 3, thinking that we would only be at Camp 4 for a few hours. Our departure time of 2am came and went and there was no respite from the wind, we delayed and delayed, all the time trying to keep circulation going in our toes. Finally at 7am the wind dropped slightly and we lit the stove, the summit was on!

We left at 8.10 and slowly started to climb upwards to the top. We both found the rucksacks heavy, carrying skis at 8000m is not an easy task!
The climb up, although hard went well and we found ourselves near the summit after nearly 6 hours of work. The snow was windblown and each step we broke through above our ankles which made uphill progress hard but we also knew it would make skiing almost impossible. Finally at 2.30pm on the 30th of Sept, Andy and I stood on the summit of Manaslu, the world 8th highest mountain. I had fixed the final 30m to the summit and we were the first on top for the year.

After photos and back slapping it was time to click into the skis and rip the mountain apart on the planks. The initial gully from the top was quite good snow and we both made some good turns down it. As the mountain expanded out the wind crust appeared and linking turns became almost impossible. We slowly and steadily picked our way down to Camp 4 where due to the late time we had no choice but to stay.

It proved to be another very cold windy, toe losing night. We spent the night rubbing blue toes to try and keep them intact while holding the tent down.
Morning dawned clear and we wasted no time getting down the hill to warmer temps, the ski to camp 3 and camp 2 proved to be uneventful. We loaded ourselves with all the equipment left on the mountain and headed to Basecamp, arriving just before dark. Tucking into our first good meal in almost a week we reflected on what had been an amazing adventure."
 

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